And commit even more war crimes. Like Nazis during WW2 when they mercilessly shelled and bombed sieged cities, especially Warsaw.
I admire Russian seriousness in times of war. They act perfectly organized, extremely determined, rational in accordance with the goals, and yet act culturally and without any nervousness. And look at the West, schizophrenics, screaming, immoderate threats, cowardly hiding behind loud statements, visibly nervous because they are afraid for their material privileges brought to them by their centuries-old system of planetary robbery.
From what can be seen, the Russians are trying to achieve their goal with limited use of force. Surely this meant greater losses for them, because the Ukrainians can mostly oppose the military technique with which the Russians came in. But I don't think the Russians will stop here until they negotiate their terms with the Ukrainians. If necessary, surely they will turn on the air force more en masse and bring more troops from the background. It will simply bring what the Russians do not want at the moment, and that is greater destruction and civilian casualties. All in all, this will turn into a real war if it is not resolved through negotiations in the next few days.
If the Russians really wanted to level Kiev to the ground they could have done so in 1 day.
independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-putin-thermobaric-rockets-b2023880.html
The TOS1 system is a short-range rocket launcher, and it is terrifying primarily because of its thermobaric warheads, which means that a firestorm occurs after an explosion. The second charge can be aerosol, after the explosion, all the air from the environment is sucked in, not even a beetle in the ground can survive.